Working in the woods at the farm(Boxelder and some Walnut)

Spent Saturday cutting up a bunch of boxelder that had fallen over last year that was blocking one of my paths.

Here are the before pics. First one is our Kubota RTV 900. I had the Stihl 310, 460, and my little Husqvarna 41 with me.

Here are the after shots of the boxelder. I didn't have time to load it up this weekend, maybe next week if I can get out there again. I plan to try burning this next year in the shoulder months. Never used it before so we will see how it works.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning up a few odd walnut tops that were lying around.

Before:







After:







and here is 4300#'s of walnut loaded up in the old Dodge and headed home.(BTW: I have a truck scale right up the street from my house)

Looks like you had a great day, how does the boxelder burn? Gotta love it when the tree comes down for you.


zap

From what I hear it is not the best firewood. Along the lines of soft maple. Hopefully, it will save some of my "good" stuff for the cold months.

Easy pickings and in my way made it hard to resist.

That old Dodge is awesome!!

Thanks.

She handled the load fine on the road. The pucker factor was up there getting down off one of the sidehills where the walnut was. :bug: I am adding some Helwig helper leaves soon to maybe help that out.

Chargerman, that looks like a lot of wood that has come down. I've burned a fair amount of box elder so do have some experience with it. Although it is generally given a bad rap it really is not that bad of wood for spring and fall months. So just go ahead and haul it all home. You will do just fine with it. Save the really hard woods for the deep part of winter.

I cut non stop from about 11am to about 2pm on the boxelder stopping to sharpen my chains once and have a water break. I am curious how much it will end up at as well. Seemed like it would never end and I just kept following the trees up the hillside.

What stops the wood from falling off the back of the truck? You must have nice, bump-free roads out there!

If you look at the rear there is a stack of heavy rounds and then I loaded the truck up from there. They don't move at all going up real steep hills, etc.

With split wood I do the same thing using larger splits and have had no problems in 2 years hauling. I don't drive over 55mph and use back roads most of the time.

Hey, cant argue with mother nature when she gives you free wood right? And bonus it was right on the path

I have burned a ton of BE and while it's not great wood I use it early ,late and mixed in with other stuff all season. Does not leave good coals so throw in a few splits of something else with it and on the really cold nights use the good stuff and you will be fine. My guess is most of that stuff that was down and had lost it's bark will be pretty dry. I have a stack of logs that have been sitting with no bark and I can cut into rounds , split it and throw it in the boiler the same day it is so dry.

If I can get 4-5 hours out of a load I will be fine during the day and on weekends. I work close to home so filling at lunchtime is no problem. I can use the better stuff at night for coaling.

That load of walnut ended up at a little more than a cord stacked. I am guessing at least 2 to 3 cords of box elder are laying there comparing it to the walnut I cut that day. I am never real good at guessing though so I won't know until it is stacked.

I've been cutting and splitting some box elder this fall. The straight grained stuff splits very nicely.
The curved pieces, and there a few more of these than on the trees I'm used to, are a pain in the
rear to split. It's heavy when alive, and very light when well-seasoned. I need shoulder season wood,
so I cull out the wicked curved pieces for the fire ring, and stack up the straight pieces for heat.

Real nice set up.
Does the Kubota have a dump bed too?
Nice pictures.

I left anything that looked like trouble splitting as well. Hopefully, what I have cut will split alright.

Thanks! The Kubota does have a dump bed but I don't really use it for wood just saws, gas, ect.

I finally managed to get the boxelder split last weekend. I stuffed the old Dodge full and had to leave all the smaller rounds at the farm for another load. I still need to stack it up but I should end up with about 2 cords when done.

It split nicely and now the path is clear also. I'll see how it burns in a year.